SEO is an acronym for "search engine
optimization" or "search engine optimizer."
Deciding to hire an SEO is a big decision that
can potentially improve your site and save time,
but you can also risk damage to your site and
reputation. Make sure to research the potential
advantages as well as the damage that an
irresponsible SEO can do to your site. Many SEOs
and other agencies and consultants provide
useful services for website owners, including:
- Review of your site content or structure
- Technical advice on website development:
for example, hosting, redirects, error
pages, use of JavaScript
- Content development
- Management of online business
development campaigns
- Keyword research
- SEO training
- Expertise in specific markets and
geographies.
Keep in mind that the Google search results
page includes organic search results and often
paid advertisement (denoted by the heading "Sponsored
Links") as well. Advertising with Google won't
have any effect on your site's presence in our
search results. Google never accepts money to
include or rank sites in our search results, and
it costs nothing to appear in our organic search
results. Free resources such as
Webmaster Tools, the official
Webmaster Central blog, and our
discussion forum can provide you with a
great deal of information about how to optimize
your site for organic search. Many of these free
sources, as well as information on paid search,
can be found on
Google Webmaster Central.
Before beginning your search for an SEO, it's
a great idea to become an educated consumer and
get familiar with how search engines work. We
recommend starting here:
If you're thinking about hiring an SEO, the
earlier the better. A great time to hire is when
you're considering a site redesign, or planning
to launch a new site. That way, you and your SEO
can ensure that your site is designed to be
search engine-friendly from the bottom up.
However, a good SEO can also help improve an
existing site.
Some useful questions to ask an SEO include:
- Can you show me examples of your
previous work and share some success
stories?
- Do you follow the Google Webmaster
Guidelines?
- Do you offer any online marketing
services or advice to complement your
organic search business?
- What kind of results do you expect to
see, and in what timeframe? How do you
measure your success?
- What's your experience in my industry?
- What's your experience in my
country/city?
- What's your experience developing
international sites?
- What are your most important SEO
techniques?
- How long have you been in business?
- How can I expect to communicate with
you? Will you share with me all the changes
you make to my site, and provide detailed
information about your recommendations and
the reasoning behind them?
While SEOs can provide clients with valuable
services, some unethical SEOs have given the
industry a black eye through their overly
aggressive marketing efforts and their attempts
to manipulate search engine results in unfair
ways. Practices that violate our guidelines may
result in a negative adjustment of your site's
presence in Google, or even the removal of your
site from our index. Here are some things to
consider:
- Be wary of SEO firms and web
consultants or agencies that send you email
out of the blue.
Amazingly, we get these spam emails too:
"Dear google.com,
I visited your website and noticed that
you are not listed in most of the major
search engines and directories..."
Reserve the same skepticism for
unsolicited email about search engines as
you do for "burn fat at night" diet pills or
requests to help transfer funds from deposed
dictators.
- No one can guarantee a #1
ranking on Google.
Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee
rankings, allege a "special relationship"
with Google, or advertise a "priority
submit" to Google. There is no priority
submit for Google. In fact, the only way to
submit a site to Google directly is through
our
Add URL page or by submitting a
Sitemap and you can do this yourself at
no cost whatsoever.
- Be careful if a company is
secretive or won't clearly explain what they
intend to do.
Ask for explanations if something is
unclear. If an SEO creates deceptive or
misleading content on your behalf, such as
doorway pages or "throwaway" domains, your
site could be removed entirely from Google's
index. Ultimately, you are responsible for
the actions of any companies you hire, so
it's best to be sure you know exactly how
they intend to "help" you.
- You should never have to link to
an SEO.
Avoid SEOs that talk about the power of
"free-for-all" links, link popularity
schemes, or submitting your site to
thousands of search engines. These are
typically useless exercises that don't
affect your ranking in the results of the
major search engines -- at least, not in a
way you would likely consider to be
positive.
- Choose wisely.
While you consider whether to go with an
SEO, you may want to do some research on the
industry. Google is one way to do that, of
course. You might also seek out a few of the
cautionary tales that have appeared in the
press, including this article on one
particularly aggressive SEO:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002002970_nwbizbriefs12.html.
While Google doesn't comment on specific
companies, we've encountered firms calling
themselves SEOs who follow practices that
are clearly beyond the pale of accepted
business behavior. Be careful.
- Be sure to understand where the
money goes.
While Google never sells better ranking
in our search results, several other search
engines combine pay-per-click or
pay-for-inclusion results with their regular
web search results. Some SEOs will promise
to rank you highly in search engines, but
place you in the advertising section rather
than in the search results. A few SEOs will
even change their bid prices in real time to
create the illusion that they "control"
other search engines and can place
themselves in the slot of their choice. This
scam doesn't work with Google because our
advertising is clearly labeled and separated
from our search results, but be sure to ask
any SEO you're considering which fees go
toward permanent inclusion and which apply
toward temporary advertising.
- What are the most common abuses
a website owner is likely to encounter?
One common scam is the creation of
"shadow" domains that funnel users to a site
by using deceptive redirects. These shadow
domains often will be owned by the SEO who
claims to be working on a client's behalf.
However, if the relationship sours, the SEO
may point the domain to a different site, or
even to a competitor's domain. If that
happens, the client has paid to develop a
competing site owned entirely by the SEO.
Another illicit practice is to place
"doorway" pages loaded with keywords on the
client's site somewhere. The SEO promises
this will make the page more relevant for
more queries. This is inherently false since
individual pages are rarely relevant for a
wide range of keywords. More insidious,
however, is that these doorway pages often
contain hidden links to the SEO's other
clients as well. Such doorway pages drain
away the link popularity of a site and route
it to the SEO and its other clients, which
may include sites with unsavory or illegal
content.
- What are some other things to
look out for?
There are a few warning signs that you
may be dealing with a rogue SEO. It's far
from a comprehensive list, so if you have
any doubts, you should trust your instincts.
By all means, feel free to walk away if the
SEO:
- owns shadow domains
- puts links to their other clients on
doorway pages
- offers to sell keywords in the
address bar
- doesn't distinguish between actual
search results and ads that appear on
search results pages
- guarantees ranking, but only on
obscure, long keyword phrases you would
get anyway
- operates with multiple aliases or
falsified WHOIS info
- gets traffic from "fake" search
engines, spyware, or scumware
- has had domains removed from
Google's index or is not itself listed
in Google
- requests your FTP account
information or root access to your
server
If you feel that you were deceived by an
SEO in some way, you may want to report it.
In the United States, the Federal Trade
Commission (FTC) handles complaints about
deceptive or unfair business practices. To
file a complaint, visit:
http://www.ftc.gov/ and click on "File a
Complaint Online," call 1-877-FTC-HELP, or
write to:
Federal Trade Commission
CRC-240
Washington, D.C. 20580
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